The present disclosure relates to a communications device using multiple protocols.
Integrated circuit (IC) cards that utilize contactless communication technologies have recently been used in various applications including IC transit cards, passports, and electronic money. Among these IC cards, most of Japanese IC transit cards and electronic money adopt a so-called FeliCa™ technology. The FeliCa specifications, defining not only communication protocols but also various command functions including commands to read/write data from/to the card, are standardized as JISX 6319-4.
On the other hand, in quite a few fields, also used are communication protocols defined by ISO/IEC 14443 for passports, driver's licenses, taspo cards and other kinds of IC cards, and a number of command systems defined by ISO/IEC 7816 (hereinafter collectively referred to as “ISO protocols”).
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-183780 discloses a system which stores, in a card, service directory data in a common format for all protocols. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2011-24091 discloses a contactless communication technique which uses a communication protocol for transmitting and receiving a frame in a predetermined format in order to transmit and receive a frame in a different format.
However, a card that uses one protocol cannot communicate with a reader/writer that uses another protocol. Thus, only limited coordination is allowed between multiple different applications.